This isn’t the first movie I have seen that was directed by Fritz Lang and there’s no way it’s going to be the last. Honestly, I have only heard his name about a month ago and not watched any of his films before, and as of this moment, I have stored about 8 to 10 movies for which I’m working on a schedule to watch in the next few days. Today’s selection is Hangmen Also Die! (1943).
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As you can already imagine, the movie was produced in the time during WWII and Fritz Lang was an exile living in America at the time. If you have previously checked out this film then you know how much he was against the war; not just him but also Bertolt Brecht (story) and Hanns Eisler (music) and in their joint collaboration this movie has spoken out the true sentiment of what they were feeling towards the war.
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It is said (mentioned once in the movie) that the Czechs are a stubborn breed. They never back away from what they believe and they certainly don’t just bow to whoever demands it. The film is based on the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich aka Hangman of Europe in 1942 who was the mastermind behind The Holocaust and Nazi Protector of the occupied Prague. So, our movie starts where Hangman was terminated in the middle of the streets and the assassin was not found. Karl Vanyk who was impersonating as an architect was the person behind the killing. He took shelter at the residence of a Mascha Novotny (Anna Lee) who misled the Blackshirts the wrong way while they were chasing for the killer. When he was residing there he found out that Mascha is the daughter of history professor Stephen Novotny. The media was screaming for the murderer’s head on the plate. Later on, it was revealed that Vanyek was actually a surgeon Dr. František Svobod.
The hunt for the killer goes on and in the meanwhile Inspector Alois Gruber and local brewer (Nazi informant), Emil Czaka planned on how to force the assassin to surrender. To bring him out of the shadows, the authorities had picked up 400 people to be held captives till he surrenders; one of the captives happened to be Prof. Novotny. Mascha tries to inform the Gestapo about the killer to free her father but backed out at the last second and ended up being questioned for hours by the authorities. Dr. Svovod’s guilty conscience started to affect him greatly but his acquaintances of the resistance convinced him to not do anything harsh or surrender. Czaka had been inside the resistance for some time and passing on information to the Gestapo. And then the cat and mouse chase continues. A couple of times the resistance had failed and a few times Gestapo had failed too, but the admirable point is even after failing and losing so much neither the resistance nor the citizens withdrew from their ground. They never fled or cowered away regardless of the end result; they knew the consequence and knew what would happen but still risked everything. Freedom means a lot to those who had lost is and a little hope of ever having it within the grasp was more than they could ask for. “United we stand” is what gets visualized here too often; nothing is unachievable.
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That isn’t the whole plot folks, there’s a whole lot that goes around in the movie; twists and turns that will make you question what’s happening. Like me, you’ll be blown away too. A friend has suggested this movie and I’m glad he did; I watched it as soon as I could. You know I was browsing and I used the filter “Genre = thriller, Rating = 7+, Year = 1900-1969, Language = German” and 4 out of 6 movies were of Fritz Lang. At first, it did surprise me a little but then I thought, well, his movies are terrific so it shouldn’t be a surprising fact. Although Lang never got this much recognition when he was alive, a lot of his works are now being greatly appreciated; a Master of Darkness indeed and Hangmen Also Die! (1943) is a fine example of that.
